Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, WI and consulting firm Mead & Hunt, also based in Madison, recently received accolades for completion of a runway safety area project. Here, the consultant's lead project manager on the MSN project shares her insights on the scope of the project. A central component that led to the success of the project was the up-front coordination with the various agencies involved.

The majority of aviation accidents occur in close proximity to an airport. Runway safety is one of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) top safety priorities.

In the late 1990's, the FAA initiated a national directive to address non-compliant safety areas. It subsequently identified the non-standard runway safety area (RSA) of runway 14/32 at Dane County Regional Airport as a high priority safety improvement project. Encroachments into Runway 14's safety area included a creek, a railroad, and the airport perimeter road. The solution required relocating a number of major structures outside the RSA.

Up-front Challenges

Bringing this runway safety area at MSN into compliance was a challenge from the start. Beyond Runway 14 lies Cherokee Marsh. Covering more than 2000 acres, the marsh is among the largest contiguous wetlands in Dane County. Approximately 340 acres of the marsh have been designated as a State Natural Area.

During the initial stages of the project, field surveys were conducted for populations of listed birds, plants, and butterflies within the Natural Area — home to a fen, a rare groundwater-dependent wetland and a number of rare plants and animals.

Agency and public involvement early in the process was key to its success. At the same time, explaining and getting buy-in of the need for the project from these parties was a major hurdle.

Once the need was established and demonstrated early in the project, there was a spirit of cooperation among all involved for the remainder of the project. In all, the airport and Mead & Hunt, Inc. coordinated with ten federal, state, and local agencies as well as local environmental groups and University of Wisconsin staff over a four-year period to develop a solution which minimized impacts and provided a comprehensive mitigation plan. The mitigation plan needed to be on-site because of the high value of the resource impacted.